Elle Karen
:For the in-game equivalent, see Yehara. is the proprietress of the Tomon Inn who is usually accompanied by one or two bodyguards. She is searching for a niece, but is too busy running the inn to look for her personally. She often does dance performances at the inn and is very famous in the city for it. Story Karen is familiar with the mercenary Jin Hazuki who frequents her inn. On one occassion, Hazuki is accompanied by a silent Assassin name Alka. She welcomes Alka after saying hello to Hazuki and then goes to meet the other patrons. When she returns to Hazuki's table to ask for payment, the mercenary simply gives her a single copper, which is not nearly enough to pay back the copious amount of alcohol and food she had consumed. Upon finding out that Alka did not have money either, Karen puts the two of them to work in her inn to pay the debt. Hazuki eventually passes out from all the alcohol, leaving Alka alone to do the work. While changing in a room, Karen noticed that Alka had a butterfly tattoo on her arm and promptly asks her to leave. She promises to not tell anyone about her as she did not want any trouble to come to her inn, evidence that she knows fully well who Alka is. After Hazuki awakens and chases after Alka, Karen follows the mercenary and interferes to save Alka's life. Hazuki chastises her for blocking her shot and goes after Alka. Karen follows them to the outskirts of the city where they have engaged in a fierce fight for survival. Before Alka could manage to kill Hazuki, Karen interferes to save her, allowing Alka to escape. Karen encounters Hazuki at her inn some time later, lamenting that she was foiled by the Pleasure Gang. Karen sends one of her bodyguards to the Regen desert to see what was going on after hearing about the Palam Empire getting involved. Her bodyguard returns with two members of the Pleasure Gang and their leader, Dan Loana. Karen nurses the three of them back to health and Loana thanks her for the trouble. Some time later, Karen is approached by a little orphan girl name Pia, whom she had seen around the city stealing food with her brother Seto. Pia affirms that she wants to work at the inn, to which Karen asks if she will be dedicated no matter what. Pia declares her affirmation and Karen accepts her as a member of her staff. One day, Karen gets word that a village she owns is being threatened and leaves the inn for a few days to resolve the matter. There she meets up with the village leader she hired to manage the place and soon discovers that the threat was a man who had hired none other than Alka. She decides to spend the night there and eventually meets the man in question along with Alka. A struggle ensued, which caused her to finally step in and get her hands dirty by killing the man. It is here she seems to show some connection to a villager name Malna. Karen later finds out that Alka has stumbled upon the Boat of Cleansing and goes to save her from being sacrificed for their ritual. She accompanies her to a desert town where they meet a Lyn name Yuu. Lon leads the three of them to the Pleasure Gang's newest homebase where they eventually encounter the Flower Monks. After that, she returns to the Tomon Inn. She eventually discovers Alka wandering the streets of the city and offers her a job at the inn. She assigns Pia and Miharu to train Alka and help her out. After a while, Karen decides to have a talk with Alka alone where she reveals that a long time ago she met a man on the streets while selling flowers (a cover for prostitution). Karen nurses the man back to health despite him telling her that he has a bounty on his head and as such was a doomed man. He goes on to tell her to call the Palam Empire so she could claim the bounty on him, as he would rather the money go to someone he has fallen in love with. After the man healed completely, he leaves Karen and promises to return for her. She doesn't believe him as many men in her line of work have said similarly romantic notions. However, the man actually does come back for her and the two of them marry, despite him still having a bounty on his head. It was with his efforts that the Tomon Inn was built and the couple managed the inn happily together. After her husband was killed, Karen tried everything she could to take care of the inn as it was the only thing left from her husband. Alka is shocked after hearing all this as she slowly came to realize that Karen's husband was one of her previous targets. Karen goes on to explain that she did not bother to take revenge on Alka when she found out who her husband's killer was because she felt it was not as satisfying to take revenge on someone who felt nothing. All the time she spent saving Alka was so she could have the satisfaction of killing the Assassin herself when the right time came along. That time came after Yuu's death, when Alka started having feelings and emotions. Now that Alka was more emotional, Karen began exacting her revenge by killing Miharu, whom she knew had formed a close friendship with Alka. She then plots an assassination request with some random guy to hire Alka where she herself would be the unknown target. Karen arrives at the so-called meeting place fully prepared to counter every one of Alka's moves. She then strikes back with her fan, which is revealed to be her main weapon of choice. She manages to wound Alka, but decides to leave her alive so she could fully satisfy her revenge at long last. However, a few days after, Karen finds herself feeling less than fulfilled after exacting her revenge upon Alka, realizing that revenge truly was pointless. It failed to fill the void left behind by her husband and so she decides to burn her marriage photo along with the last remains of her husband as a way to finally move on. After she was found out by Hazuki and Loana, Karen journeys to the ruins of the Clan of the Sword, hoping to find Alka there. Upon reaching the ruins She is glad to see Alka there, but was surprised to hear her wish for her death as Hazuki aimed her gun at her. For some reason, Karen intervenes to protect the Assassin, which surprises her as much as everyone else. Feeling regret for what she did to Alka, Karen tries to revive the girl's former fighting prowess by engaging in combat with her. She is successful just as a resurrected Jin Varrel arrived to kill Alka. Category:Character Category:Anime